Aussie Finch Forum

You must have unsociable flies or on a serious note could it be the climate where you live.
It is far more humid in your area than down this way.
Danny the must be a reason.
It doesn't really matter as long as you can breed enough for your birds reptile etc etc etc

when I use to breed insects we used a wick set up to water them

that is the original method and the cleanest.
We went away from that as the number of flies we had in our boxes couldn't get access to enough water,
hence an open jar with coconut fibre in it. The fibre was just a means to crawl out and not drown.

From the originater and the original maggot man,SAM YOU HAVE GOT IT RIGHT happy maggot breeding Cheers Craig

Craig
Maybe you should be referrred to as the "Maggot Man"

E Orix wrote:Craig
Maybe you should be referrred to as the "Maggot Man"

David G'day mate,i was referring to myself,but i lost that title many years ago after all those articals in AA. But i agree with Danny,two many flies equals less maggots gained,but i would have twice the amount shown in the pic.I find when the flies start to die off,i get larger amounts of maggots.My theory is that there are so eggs layed and hatched when there are to many flies the maggots eat each other and the quantity drops dramaticly leaving larger maggots.When this happens you have remove the container in a day and grow them out in a larger container with fresh medium. Hope this helps weaver man.
Cheers Craig

Forgot to mention,i do clean my maggots out in dry bran for at least 8hrs,reason being many years ago myself and well know breeder Kevin Western tried to get our bluecaps off termites and on to bush fly maggots with disasterous results.Young would leave the nest with diarea so badly they would have to be caught up and washed and dryed with a hair dryer.This proved they could be bred on maggots.With phone conversations,we decided to clean the maggots out for a minimum of 8hrs or more,this work wonders no more dirty bottoms.That year i bred 20 blue caps on maggots and extra small mealworms from 4pr.
I don't keep bluecaps any more,but the habit of cleaning out my maggots still persists and always will. Hope this helps weaverman Cheers Craig

Here's an overview of my maggot system.

Looks great Sam,

What were the dimensions you used for the box?

Birds of a feather wrote:What were the dimensions you used for the box?

Just measured it - 530mm High by 390mm Wide by 480mm Deep.
I don't think the dimensions are critical. I used shelves from an old kitchen cupboard I had lying around. I'd say the shelves were 450mm deep which determined the depth of the flybox. I nicked the flyscreen off a window in the house that we never open. The electrical flex and plug was recycled from an old computer power cable. Sadly I had to buy the switch, dimmer, globe holders and the aluminium angle. And looking back at the pictures my box now definitely needs a clean!

Thanks Sam,

am wiring everything up now.